Practice Problems: Chapter 2 & 3 Ebony Cook PSY 315 Kimberly Ball February 26, 2012

Chapter 2: 11. For the following scores, find the (a) mean, (b) median, (c) sum of squared deviations, (d) variance, and (e) standard deviation: 2, 2, 0, 5, 1, 4, 1, 3, 0, 0, 1, 4, 4, 0, 1, 4, 3, 4, 2, 1, 0 X 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 5 42
(Xi X ) 2

4 4 4 4 4 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 4 4 4 4 4 9 56

a.) Mean: 42/21=2 b.) Median: 2

c.) Sum of squared deviations:

(X
i =1

X ) 2 = 56

d.) Variance:

1 n ( X i X )2 n i =1

=2.6666

e.) Standard deviation:

Variance =1.6329

12. For the following scores, find the (a) mean, (b) median (c) sum of squared deviations, (d) variance, and (e) standard deviation: 1,112; 1,245; 1,361; 1,372; 1,472 X 1112 1245 1361 1372 1472 6562
a.) Mean: 6562/5=1312.4

(X-Mean)2 40160.16 4542.76 2361.96 3552.16 25472.16 76089.2

b.) Median: 1361

c.) Sum of squared deviations:

(X
i =1

X )2

=76,089.2

d.) Variance:

1 n ( X i X ) 2 =15,217.84 n i =1

e.) Standard deviation:

Variance =123.3606

13. For the following scores, find the (a) mean, (b) median, (c) sum of squared deviations, (d) variance, and (e) standard deviation: 3.0, 3.4, 2.6, 3.3, 3.5, 3.2. X 2.6 3 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 19 (X-Mean)2 0.321036 0.027756 0.001116 0.017796 0.054476 0.111156 0.53333

a.) Mean: 19/6 = 3.16667 b.) Median: (2.6+3.3)/2 = 2.95 c.) Sum of squared deviations: d.) Variance:

(X
i =1

X)2

= 0.53333

1 n (Xi X )2 n i =1

= 0.08889

e.) Standard deviation:

Variance = 0.2981

16. A psychologist interested in political behavior measured the square footage of the desks in the official office of four U.S. governors and of four chief executive officers (CEOs) of major U.S. corporations. The figures for the governors were 44, 36, 52, and 40 square feet. The figures for the CEOs were 32, 60, 48, and 36 square feet. (a) Figure the means and standard deviations for the governors and for the CEOs. (b) Explain, to a person who has never had a course in statistics, what you have done. (c) Note the ways in which the means and standard deviations differ, and speculate on the possible meaning of these differences, presuming that they are representative of U.S. governors and large corporations CEOs in general. Governors:
a.) Mean: (44+36+52+40)/4 = 43

Standard deviation: 6.831 CEOs:

a.) Mean: (32+60+48+36)/4 = 44

Standard deviation: 12.649 b.) When it comes to the mean value, this can be obtained by taking the total of all values and dividing that total in a group by the total quantity values within that group. Use the formula below to get the standard deviation: Where n is the quantity of data values in sample, X-bar is the mean and Xi is the data values.

The sample standard deviation (generally displayed by S) calculates the variability of data in a sample.
c.) The basic average size between a governor and a CEO does not differ much. This means

that they are roughly the same. However that standard deviation has a great difference amongst them both. This change could have come about because there is a limitation with governors choosing their desks and there is independence with the CEOs choosing their desks. 21. Payne (2001) gave participants a computerized task in which they first see a face and then a picture of either a gun or a tool. The task was to press one button if it was a tool and a different one if it was a gun. Unknown to the participants while they were doing the study, the faces served as a prime (something that starts you thinking a particular way); half the time they were of a black person and half the time of a white person. Table 29 shows the means and standard deviations for reaction times (the time to decide if the picture is of a gun or a tool) after either a black or white prime. (In Experiment 2, participants were told to decide as fast as possible.) Explain the results to a person who has never had a course in statistics. (Be sure to explain some specific numbers as well as the general principle of the mean and standard deviation.) a.) When tool is exposed to the black prime we can see that there is an increase in the mean in the research final results. This means that when a person notices the black prime they are more than likely prone to press the gun button. After the black prime was offered, the response time for tool was in great significance in both experiments. This mean that the individuals involved in the experiment were least antedating the tools photo after a black individuals photo. With experiment 2, the mean was reduced tremendously because the button had to be pushed by a member as quickly as possible. This was done to see how the reaction time being reduced would impact the research. The standard deviation for the experiment reduced as well. Only a few milliseconds made the difference between the means of the countless

groups for both experiments. This means that even if the last photo that was shown of a white or black individual, the members were still able to recognize gun or tool in the same time and manner. There was hardly any impact on the overall results of the study. Chapter 3: 14. On a standard measure of hearing ability, the mean is 300 and the standard deviation is 20. Give the Z scores for persons who score (a) 340, (b) 310, and (c) 260. Give the raw scores for persons whose Z scores on this test are (d) 2.4, (e) 1.5, (f) 0, and (g)-4.5. X where =300 and =20 X 340 310 260 Z= X 2 0.5 -2

The Z score is given by Z =

The X score can be calculated from Z score as X = Z+ Z 2.4 1.5 0 4.5 X = Z+ 348 330 300 390

15. A person scores 81 on a test of verbal ability and 6.4 on a test of quantitative ability. For the verbal ability test, the mean for people in general is 50 and the standard deviation is 20. For the quantitative ability test, the mean for people in general is 0 and the standard deviation is 5. Which is this persons stronger ability: verbal or quantitative? Explain your answer to a person who has never had a course in statistics. X

The Z score is defined as: Z =

Variable Verbal Quantitative ability

Mean 50 6.4

Standard Deviation 20 0

Score X 81 5

Z score 1.55 1.28

Looking at both the verbal ability and the quantitative capability, we can see that the Z score for the verbal ability came out to be more. This means that the individual is stronger in verbal ability rather than quantitative capability.

22. Suppose you want to conduct a survey of the attitude of psychology graduate students studying clinical psychology toward psychoanalytic methods of psychotherapy. One approach would be to contact every psychology graduate student you know and ask them to fill out a questionnaire about it. (a) What kind of sampling method is this? (b) What is a major limitation of this kind of approach?

a.) Survey is the techniques of sampling that is being used in this study.

b.) There is major time consumption when it comes to using the survey technique. An expert would have to come in contact with every graduate pupil and the cost of this would be major as well to carry out the study.

25. You are conducting a survey at a college with 800 students, 50 faculty members, and 150 administrators. Each of these 1,000 individuals has a single listing in the campus phone directory. Suppose you were to cut up the directory and pull out one listing at random to contact. What is the probability it would be (a) a student, (b) a faculty member, (c) an administrator, (d) a faculty member or administrator, and (e) anyone except an administrator? (f) Explain your answers to someone who has never had a course in statistics.

Probability = favorable cases /total number of case

a.) 800/1000

b.) 50/1000

c.) 150/1000

d.) (50+150)/1000 = 200/1000

e.) (1000-150)/1000 = 850/1000

f.) To forecast the possibility of picking a person from a particular group, the probability would be utilized. When trying to find the probability of picking a member of a given group you would have to take a look into the proportions between the number of members with each group and the number of survey members within the college.